The Planet of Eden

Apollo sat in his hospital bed while peering out a window. Three to six weeks is a long time to do nothing, as he had realized after just one day. There weren't even any other ponies to chat with. Nurse Redheart always had something to do. More often than not, she wasn't even in the same room.

Then he heard footsteps, err, hoofsteps coming from behind the door.

"Apollo? You have a visitor." He turned his head away from one of the only windows in the room to see a purple unicorn with a violet mane and a pink stripe.

"...Do I know you?" Apollo questioned.

"Ah, no. My name is Twilight Sparkle. I caught you when you fell yesterday. I heard that you woke up, so I came to ask you a few things."

"All right, anything personal?"

"Well, all of them are personal."

"Great." Apollo remarked sarcastically. "Ask away."

Twilight magically brought a scroll out of her satchel. "So... what's your name?"

"Apollo."

Twilight checked off a question on her list. "Occupation?"

"Scientist." There was more movement of Twilight's quill.

"Okay, where are you from?"

"Uhh... ahh..."

"Wait a second, are you from Equestria?" Twilight started to look increasingly curious.

"Um, yes?" Her curious gaze turned into suspicion.

"Who is Princess Celestia?"

Apollo gave Twilight the best 'wtf' look he could give before sighing and answering reluctantly. "Fine, I admit it, I'm not from Equestria."

"Then where?" She took on her curious face again.

"Ah, uh, hm..." Apollo searched his mind for a believable reply, only to realize the risk of a backfire was too great.

"A different planet entirely."

"That's better... wait what?"

"The third planet rotating around the star Sol, in the Milky Way galaxy. I'm not sure if I'm still in the same galaxy or not, though."

"Ah..." Twilight thought fast to formulate a reassuring sentence which would lead Apollo to talk more. "Sounds interesting. A few books I read cover other planets with life. Theories, of course. This proves it all." Apollo saw right through the attempt, but decided to play along. He had determined that the best course of action was to cooperate, since he saw this chat as an interrogation.

"So you're just going to believe me?"

"Of course! You seem like a nice enough pony. Although... I can't imagine the odds that you would be a pony. The odds of a near identical species developing from a different evolutionary chain is astronomically low."

"I'm not. Or rather, I was not. I used to be human." Apollo looked gloomily down at his hooves. After noticing Twilight's bewilderment, he added on to his statement. "A bipedal mammal with neither fur nor tail."

"The-... how... wha...?"

"I met some mare after my spacecraft crashed on this planet's moon... she called herself-"

"Nightmare Moon." Now Twilight looked grimly through the window and at the sky. "Let's just say that she isn't your average pony."

"Understood. She... used some kind of magic on me..."

Twilight frowned. "What kind of magic?"

"No idea. I can't explain it at all..."

"Hmm..."

"Hah. You don't have to believe that. It's a miracle that you have believed everything else."

"...All right, I'll have to research it... Anyways, I'm going to try to help you with your injury." Twilight noticed Apollo being completely taken off guard and wide-eyed. She couldn't help but giggle.

"With Nurse Redheart's permission, of course. I know, I'm a student not a doctor, but I'll do what I can."

Apollo remained tense and mildly uneasy.

"I'm only teasing. I've read a few books on the matter."

"Experience always overcomes knowledge..."

"Don't worry. I have plenty of experience when it comes to magic."

"I hope you're right. I'm ready." Despite his words, Apollo was still quite nervous.

Whitetail Wood

Fluttershy sped through the forest using her wings to help her run faster than ever before.

Oh my goodness... what were those things? They were so scary... Wait, where am I going anyways?

Without even realizing it, Fluttershy was going directly to Rainbow Dash's house. After discovering this, she decided to stay on her course and tell Rainbow about what happened.

Fluttershy finally arrived after what seemed like hours and stopped to gasp for air. She pounded on the door desperately once she caught her breath.

"RAINBOW DASH! HELP!"

The door of the cloud-house catapulted open, leaving Fluttershy on the ground. Behind the door was a pegasus with a teal coat and a rainbow mane. The front of her mane sported red, orange, and yellow, while the back of it had green, blue, and purple.

"Whoa whoa whoa, I'm right here!" Rainbow Dash replied.

"Oh... sorry... it's just that there's a few scary things near the Everfree Forest and they... *sniff* attacked me..."

"They did WHAT! See ya later Fluttershy, I'll take care of 'em!"

"Thanks... but, um, please be careful..." Rainbow Dash was already too far away with the wind in her ears to hear Fluttershy.

So... they were near the Everfree Forest... but where? Gah, I should've asked where Fluttershy was exactly.

Rainbow spent about 10 minutes hovering above sections of the border of the forest before finding what she was looking for.

There were four strange bipedal creatures sitting around a dead campfire.

That must be them!

Rainbow Dash charged down with every ounce of speed in her, until she heard a loud noise echo in the forest. She stopped dead in her tracks.

"What the...?"

Another bang and Rainbow felt a throbbing pain in her right wing. As she quickly scanned over it, she found a small hole about the size of a coin.

"Huh? That's not right..."

A third shot went right past her ear, and Rainbow Dash finally decided to flee. With all of her effort, she managed to flap her right wing violently to make up for all of the lost air from the hole. It took her about half an hour just to arrive safely at the hospital.

Ponyville Hospital

"There! Now it'll just be about a few days to a week." Twilight awaited Apollo's response.

"Wh-what did you do...?"

"Simple, actually. I moved the broken bones closer to each other, like solving a jigsaw puzzle. Then I slightly sped up the reproduction of the bone cells."

"Wait, you know about cells?" Apollo followed the explanation completely, but was astonished by the level of scientific knowledge that these ponies had.

"Of course I-" Twilight was interrupted by the door creaking open. She pivoted to see...

"Rainbow! What happened?"

"Nothing much..." Rainbow Dash trotted to one of the beds unhindered, and then extended her wings. A drop of blood fell on the floor from the small patch of red on Rainbow's cyan wing.

"What the... how did that hole get there?" Nurse Redheart finally unveiled the problem.

"A hole? How?" Twilight rushed to Rainbow to get a closer look.

"Well, Fluttershy said some jerk attacked her, so I went near the Everfree Forest to check it out. I was flying above the border between Whitetail and Everfree when I saw a few weird creatures. A few loud noises later, and I was flying crooked all the way here."

Twilight and Apollo in particular were intrigued by the story.

"By loud noises, what do you mean?" Twilight asked.

Apollo immediately followed up. "What kind of creatures?"

"Well, they kinda looked like tall, fur-less monkeys... and the noises were nothing like I'd ever heard before. Sounded pretty cool though, if my wing wasn't injured."

"Those sons of- agh!"

"What are you doing! You still need to recover more!" Nurse Redheart instantly pushed Apollo back into bed.

"Those people... how many were there?" Apollo had given up on escaping the bed, but persisted with questions.

Rainbow Dash frowned and attempted to remember. "Didn't count them, but there was at least two."

"This is bad... very very bad..." Apollo continued after receiving multiple confused looks. "I didn't come alone; there were four others with me."

"Hold on, what the hay are you

talking about? And why can we trust you?" Rainbow noisily added.

"Keep... your wings... still!" Nurse Redheart said, obviously agitated.

"Oh, sorry." Rainbow Dash extended her wings farther again.

"I was telling Twilight that I'm not from here earlier. That's all you need to know. You can choose to trust me or not."

Twilight shot an accusing look at Apollo and took up where he left off. "He's not from this planet."

Rainbow wasn't convinced. "Hah, fat chance. How hard did you hit your head?"

"I didn't. I landed on my hind leg. That's how I broke it."

"Yeah, yeah."

"Anyways, two of them have relatively good intentions. The other two are a different story... they'll attack anyone at the first sign of hostility... or sometimes even before it."

"So... you thinking what I'm thinking, Rainbow?" Twilight said after a pause.

"Kick their hindquarters out of town?"

Twilight facehoofed. "No, use the Elements of Harmony on them."

"Oh, yeah, that should work too. If we can even make it close enough to them."

"Wait, Elements of Harmony? What?"

"It's what we used to bring Nightmare Moon back to good. Long story short, it turned out me, Rainbow Dash, and four of my other friends represent the elements." Twilight explained.

"Oh. If they can do that, then they can do just about anything."

"All right, let's get going!" Rainbow Dash was already eager to leave.

"Don't. They're probably expecting an army to attack them by now." Apollo cautioned calmly.

"All right then, how about when you're fully healed, Rainbow?" Twilight added.

The pegasus in question groaned. "Fine..."

"All right, it's settled then. Apollo, how about I get you some books for while you're here?"

"Please. It'd be better than staying here with only Rainbow to accompany me for a week."

"Hey!"

"I'll be back in a few minutes, then."

Twilight left the room, and Apollo suddenly noticed that Nurse Redheart had left a while ago.

"So, what did you mean you're not from this planet? Are you a spy from the Moon?" Rainbow Dash questioned.

"Hah, no. There isn't nearly enough materials on this planet's moon to construct an escape pod with thrusters powerful enough to-"

Rainbow interrupted Apollo to spare herself from the details "Whatever. You could've magic'd yourself here though."

"I didn't even know magic existed until a few days ago."

Rainbow Dash giggled while attempting to hold back laughter. "Really? A unicorn who doesn't know that magic exists?"

"I wasn't a unicorn before either... or pony at all, for that matter." Apollo said reluctantly.

"This just keeps getting better and better!"

"Oh, shut up."

Rainbow stopped talking, but couldn't stop chuckling until Apollo spoke again.

"Anyways, I was telling Twilight earlier that I'm from a planet much like this one."

"Like, how much like this one? Is it just as cool?" For once, Rainbow Dash seemed legitimately interested.

"Well, I haven't been here long, but I can still compare them. I've heard stories about when there were forests acres wide, and they weren't even at protected areas. It was all ruined by technology... especially pollution. Black Mesa can suck my bankrupt-"

"Uhh, about the planet?" Starting with the part about technology, Rainbow Dash couldn't follow what Apollo was saying at all.

"Right. It's a long story that I don't know much about, but it used to be more like this place. In contrast, this place is, in essence, perfect. A true Garden of Eden. Speaking of which, is there a name for this planet?" Rainbow tilted her head up and frowned in thought for a second, mostly to process what the hay Apollo had said.

Twilight joined the conversation before Rainbow got a chance to speak. "Equestria is the largest kingdom in the known world, and as such we refer to the planet as Equestria. Equestria encompasses every piece of dry land we know of, after all."

"Kingdom? As in a monarchy or a monarch with his power spread between a larger group?" Apollo instantly asked.

"A diarchy. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna govern all of it. But there's more about that in one of these books."

Twilight had already laid her satchel on the bed nearest to Apollo's. She had begun plopping books on Apollo's bed one by one with her magic until a total of seven books were emptied out. "One for each day of the week." Twilight explained.

"You should probably read the Beginner's Guide to Magic first." Twilight laid the said book in front of Apollo. "It would make it easier to get the other books, especially since you can't walk."

"All right. Thanks."

"No problem!" With these words, Twilight took her leave again.

Magic, huh. I hope it's easier than it sounds.

Apollo flipped open the book to the first page. Upon noticing the first few pages were of the title, author, and author's notes, he skipped them. Apollo began reading on the first interesting page he found.

First off, what is magic? Magic is the ability to manipulate your environment using the energy in you body. This energy is focused through your horn, so if you're a pegasus or an earth pony, you might as well stop reading.

So that means not all ponies can use magic? I guess that makes sense.

Using your horn, you can focus your energy and release it into your environment.

How do you find your energy? Simple. Every living pony has energy. Know this, and it's easy. First, you have to stay completely calm. Then, you search in the center of your body, until you find a pull. All you have to do is bring it out by channeling it through your horn.

Apollo looked away from the book and began his course through the steps.

So I have to stay calm...

Apollo took several deep breaths.

Then search in the center of my body for a pull. What would be the center? Near my lungs? My stomach? My heart? Only one way to find out...

Apollo took a minute to focus on each part of his body. He began with the lungs, then the heart, then the stomach with no success.

Wait a second, the center of my body? That must mean my brain!

He delved into the depths of the brain. Beneath its many layers, in the center, he found a mystical power he had never seen in himself before.

Now I just need to pull it out. All right, deep breath in... deep breath out, and... now.

To start, Apollo had a constant fizzle at the tip of his horn. As Apollo called upon his newfound power more, it began to grow, but still at a fizzle. With one final surge of willpower, Apollo's struggle with his mind was over. His horn was surrounded by a turquoise aura. Apollo couldn't help but smile.

Wow... unreal... This is amazing! I feel incredible!

"Haha, if you think that's hard, you don't even know."

Rainbow Dash's comment annoyed Apollo greatly. He shot a glance at Rainbow, then continued reading.

Escape Pod #1 Landing Site

"No sign of it anywhere... are you sure you shot that pony out of the sky, Hades?" Poseidon turned towards the one who wielded a sniper rifle about fifteen minutes prior.

"Positive."

"Well whether you did or not, it's not here. We better go back before Zeus calls us back."

About a minute later, the duo arrived at the forward base.

"No sign of the pony Hades shot, sir."

"I still don't see any reason to shoot a civilian." Zeus accused Hades.

"I told you before, it was charging straight towards us."

"Hostile civilian? Don't shoot 'em for God's sake, at the most use a taser." Zeus stood up and stopped to think.

"All right then, fine. We don't know what these things are capable of anyways. Once we know, we'll hold back as we deem necessary. But..."

Zeus paused again, this time for just a couple of moments.

"We can't do much at the moment. We still need to gather intel about Equestria. It's safe to say these ponies probably won't treat us very kindly, but we still need to confirm it. We should take turns doing recon missions routinely. Don't get too close to the town, but gather as much news as possible. Hermes, you come with me."

Zeus and Hermes rose up and started walking towards the town they had discovered that day. They avoided the road, yet traveled about twenty-five feet away. A little calibration on the microphones outside of their helmets, and Zeus and Hermes could pick up every single whisper and hoofstep.

A long while later, they came close to the town they discovered to be called Ponyville. It was the exact same town as the one they saw through the zoom in the escape pod.

"All right, we should be fine staying here. All we need to hear right now is the local gossip." Zeus explained.

Hades nodded and began listening to the daily chats of the ponies.

"There's talk of dragons in these parts." "Yeah, one of them was sleeping in that mountain a couple days ago."

"Dragons? That could be trouble." Hermes uttered.

"Yeah, but a 'nade in the mouth and they won't know what hit 'em. Keep listening." Zeus' voice slowly rose as he spoke.

"Did you hear about the Summer Sun Celebration last week?" "I didn't. Did you?" "Nightmare Moon kidnapped Princess Celestia and wouldn't let her raise the sun."

Hermes and Zeus looked at each other with concerned and confused looks, and then looked back towards the town.

"Really? What happened next?" "Some six ponies used the Elements of Harmony to bring her back to being Princess Luna."

"Excuses to keep the worship going... It's still a good idea to let Poseidon know about it, though. He wouldn't stop ranting about that long night in that damned escape pod." Zeus said.

"Hi! Have you seen Fluttershy...? Oh, thanks anyways!"

"Hah. First good news so far."

"Zeus, cut down on the talking. We might get caught." Hermes whispered.

"Oh, right."

After around an hour of eavesdropping on Ponyville conversations, Zeus and Hermes decided to head on back and report. When they left for the base, it was the beginning of sunset. They arrived in the darkness of night.

"Hey, you're finally back. What did you hear?" Poseidon was anxious to hear about the current events. Zeus spoke up about them after taking his seat at the newly lit campfire...

"Yeah, yeah. We took a while. Anyways, we heard a few interesting things. Apparently this place has dragons too. Hell, this is almost a full-on fantasy world now." Zeus said with a slightly solemn tone.

"Anything else?" Poseidon said.

"Oh right. Remember Nightmare Moon? Turns out she made it safely here. She kidnapped Princess Celestia for a few hours, and didn't let her raise the Sun, so the story goes. I heard at least three ponies talk about it, which confirms its validity."

"So that's what happened... it makes sense, I guess."

"What! How does that make any sense whatsoever?" The solemn part of Zeus' voice disappeared.

Poseidon spoke calmly. "Well, relatively. You have to admit that magic Nightmare Moon used on The Eagle was unexplainable, yet it happened. The extended night they had is explained by this, too."

"All true... ugh. One last thing. Some pony was talking some gibberish about magic. Didn't make any sense whatsoever. That's it for the interesting stuff... don't make me try to remember the other bullshit they said."

"I gotcha."

The group then sat silently for a good amount of time. Upon further investigation, Zeus noticed that Hades was already asleep. No doubt it was because he was the first to wake up.

"Anyways, I'm going to bed. We got up early today." Poseidon rose and walked towards his tent.

Without much else to do, Zeus and Hermes thought about nothing in particular. A half hour later, everyone was asleep.

Ponyville

Twilight walked across the dirt roads between Ponyville's beige houses with red roofs. Noticing the hospital, she decided to take an evening visit before calling it a day and going home. Twilight found Rainbow Dash asleep, and Apollo lost in the realm of books.

She waved her hoof in front of Apollo to gain his attention. He reacted by flinching. "Wow, didn't see you there."

"Which one are you reading?" Twilight asked.

"The one you suggested."

"Which is...? I don't have a perfect memory."

The book was surrounded by a turquoise aura, and then it was tilted upwards. The title was A Beginner's Guide to Magic.

Twilight smiled. "Show-off. What else did you learn?"

"Another one of the other simple ones, specifically a light spell." Apollo attempted to seem modest, but failed and instead spoke confidently.

"That's great progress! You should really get some rest though."

"Hmm..." Apollo frowned.

"It's all right, I know that feeling too. Just try to stop reading eventually. Good night." Twilight walked out. She closed the door with her hoof by hooking her hoof around the doorknob.

Apollo is exactly like how I was not too long ago... reading too much. But it doesn't add up... he's friendly, but how could anypony possibly adjust to their form so quickly? He spoke the truth about being a human before, proven by his knowledge of the odd visitors in the Everfree Forest. Hmm... Apollo must be hiding his feelings, or else he's hiding something else...

Twilight arrived at her tree house. Since nopony answered, she deduced that Spike must be asleep. She walked over to her scroll and quill and...

Twilight shook her head and reconsidered.

No, not right now. Spike is in bed already, and Princess Celestia is probably too busy anyways.

Although in reality, she knew that she was only making excuses. Word about this must get to the princess, but that didn't mean it was easy to say. After all, if everypony found out Apollo is an alien, he might lose his chance at a normal life in Ponyville.

Twilight spoke to herself while half asleep. "After we take care of the other humans, then I'll tell Princess Celestia about Apollo..."

(Fixed italics/bold/underline in chapter 2)

Just to make things absolutely clear, I'll be uploading one chapter a day until I hit chapter 5/6, depending on whether or not I finish 6 by then.

Yes, I'm doing it to bump the story.